How to Make Homemade Peanut Butter

Here's how to make your own natural homemade peanut
butter from fresh or roasted peanuts. There are many reasons to do so: taste,
nutrition and safety. Almost all of the commercial peanut butters
contain added sugar, salt, oils, and often preservatives. Home-made
peanut butter is not only healthier, is also tastes much better!
You can make it smooth, chunky or in between! You can use peanuts,
cashews, pecans, hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios, or other nuts,
including a mixture.

You won't need to worry
about your homemade peanut butter being contaminated with
Salmonella nor
cancer-causing alfatoxins (see this page for more information about aflatoxins). If you need a reminder that you shouldn't trust your health
to corporate processed foods, just read about the many recalls of
contaminated peanut butter:

January 2009 outbreak of illnesses caused by Salmonella
Typhimurium from peanut butter and peanut paste produced by the
Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) at its Blakely, Georgia
processing plant.

2007 recall of Peter Pan peanut butter

So let's see how easy it is to make your own peanut butter! Here's how to do it, complete instructions in easy steps and
completely illustrated.

Prepared this way, the jars have a refrigerator shelf life of 3 or 4 months
and indefinitely in the freezer. Unfortunately, it is not considered to
be safe to "can" peanut and other nut butters at home.

Directions for Making Peanut Butter

Makes about 1 quart of peanut butter

Ingredients

1 bag of unshelled peanuts or 1 can (2 cups or 1 lb) of
shelled, raw or roasted peanuts (I think unsalted is healthier - you can always
add salt, if you want to)

Vegetable oil (just a small amount, 1 or 2 tablespoons).
I prefer peanut oil, but corn, sunflower, safflower, etc,. all work.
I would not use olive oil because it would adversely affect the taste.

Equipment

Recipe and Directions

Step 1 - Shell the peanuts

Unless you bought shelled peanuts, you will obviously need to shell them and
discard the shells (they make great mulch in the garden or add to your compost).
I just quickly shell them by hand, and don't bother much with the thin read
skins. When I have the peanuts shelled, I take them outside and just blow
into the bowl while stirring it. The skins float away!

Step 2 - Assemble your blender or food processor and ingredients

Set up your blender or food processor with the metal food processor blade attached, and
add 2 cups of raw or roasted shelled peanuts into it.

Step 3 - Get chopping!

Cover the bowl with the blender's lid and chop up the peanuts continuously for 2 to 3 minutes or
until the mixture starts to clump up and is finely chopped.

Step 4 - Scrape and finish chopping

Scrape down the food processor bowl to mix back the peanuts that are pushed
to the outside where they won't get chopped. Process until you get the
consistency you like (chunky or smooth).

Step 5 - Add the vegetable oil

Most peanuts don't contain enough oil naturally to make a smooth butter.
You only need to add about 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of vegetable oil (peanut
oil is best, obviously, but any neutral flavored oil, like sunflower or
canola oil works). Just mix it in with a fork. Your blender may
not be powerful enough to do this without sticking, so you may want to
mix the oil in, in a separate bowl.

Step 6 - Tasting

Taste the peanut butter and add a touch of salt, if
you like! For those that prefer a sweet peanut butter, you can add 1
tablespoon of honey, brown sugar or, if you are diabetic, Stevia (or if you prefer, Splenda) or other
artificial sweetener.

Step 7 - Eat or store

Just spoon peanut butter into a jar and seal. Store it in the refrigerator
until you use it. It should keep for a month or two. You can also freeze
it. It will keep indefinitely in the freezer. In both cases, you may need
to stir the peanut butter to mix the oils back in (the oil tends to separate
over time). And no, you cannot "can" the peanut butter - it is too low acid to
safely can with home equipment.

This is the same type of standard canner that my grandmother used to make everything from applesauce to jams and jellies to tomato and spaghetti sauce. This complete kit includes everything you need and lasts for years: the canner, jar rack, jar grabber tongs, lid lifting wand, a plastic funnel, labels, bubble freer. It's much cheaper than buying the items separately. You'll never need anything else except jars & lids (and the jars are reusable)! There is also a simple kit with just the canner and rack, and a pressure canner, if you want to do vegetables (other than tomatoes). To see
more canners, of different styles, makes and prices, click here!
Don't forget the Ball Blue Book!

Lids, Rings, Jars, mixes, pectin, etc.

Need lids, rings and replacement jars? Or pectin to make jam,
spaghetti sauce or salsa mix or pickle mixes? Get them all here, and
usually at lower prices than your local store!

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